New Firmware Set For PSP, PS3

Crossing my fingers, praying it works better than all those stupid Jabra headsets I've tried.

After years of people asking things like "you know what they need to do on the PSP," it's finally happening. The PSP is finally poised to get its own version of the PlayStation Network and the PlayStation Store. This will let you buy games directly from the PSP, rather than having to use the PC or a PlayStation 3 as the middleman in your quest for digital downloads and transactions.

The PS3's 2.50 upgrade also sounds pretty snazzy, adding "last online" status entries on your friends list, making trophy level meters appear in more locations, and adding additional support for the official PS3 Bluetooth headset, which is shipping this week as an optional pack-in with copies of SOCOM: Confrontation. As someone who has tried several different BT headsets on the PS3 with very little satisfaction, I'm very interested to see how this one will perform.

On the firmware side, the headset upgrades will allow a high-quality mode and on-screen indicators for battery life and volume level.

For a full list of changes, check out Sony's blog. The US blog hasn't posted any release date for the new firmware, but its UK counterpart, Three Speech, has an SCEE press release stating that both firmware updates will hit Europe tomorrow. Seems likely that the US updates will hit in a similar fashion, especially since those headset upgrades should probably be available alongside SOCOM, which hits stores, like, tomorrow.